SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The futures of science and technology
Arie Rip is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology in the School of Management and Governance. He studied chemistry and philosophy at the University of Leiden, obtained his PhD degree there and was Guest Professor in Science Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam.
Scientific institutions, he emphasizes, are being challenged by outside pressures to compete for excellence and become global participants in a world of newly emerging sciences and technologies. "Institutions respond in different ways," he says, "some act more productively than others. I have created possible scenarios for developments, including one where the bubbles of performance ratings, such as the Shanghai list of excellent universities, bursts and institutions have to re-position themselves." He presents and discusses such possible "scenarios" in different countries around the world, ranging from Norway to South Korea.
His other main topic of research and valorisation is constructive assessment of technology, in particular nanotechnology, as part of the Dutch R&D Consortium NanoNed, which ended in 2010, he led a team of PhD and post-doctoral students studying possible embedding of nanoscience and nanotechnology in society. One successful approach is to develop socio-technical scenarios that serve as a background to strategy-articulation workshops. Such studies on societal embedding of nanotechnology will be continued in NanoNextNL, the successor to NanoNed.
Stefan Kuhlmann Full Professor STePS
Circulating images of nanotechnology
Martin Ruivenkamp studied images of nanotechnology as a PhD candidate in the Department of Science, Technology and Policy Studies (STePS) focusing on visualizations of nanoscale: the artist"s impressions of how the nanoscale could look like and future visions that abound within and beyond the domain of science.
In his dissertation, Ruivenkamp points out that various studies have focused on the images of nanotechnology, yet he says, "Little or no attention has been paid to the production or circulation of nanoimages. I claim in my thesis that the production, use, take-up and reproduction of nanotech images are not just the context in which images of nanotechnology figure but are actually entangled with images of nanotechnology and their wider role.
How images might help shape developments of nanotechnology has been one of the motivational questions behind his research but "since nanotechnology developments are at an early stage, it is hard to trace eventual shaping," explains Ruivenkamp.
Eventually, he hopes to reveal in his research what is exactly happening to nanotechnology images in terms of their production, circulation, uptake and reproduction.
His focus on "imaging dynamics and imaging strategies" is studied as part of the Constructive Technology Assessment Programme of NanoNed which was started to understand and improve the interaction between science, technology and society.
The former STePS researcher will defend his thesis on the 21 April at the University of Twente. Learn more by reading his 2010 publication, co-written with Emeritus Professor Arie Rip, on the visualisation practices of nanoscientists.
Nanotechnology: Enables Emerging Technologies
Douglas Robinson obtained his undergraduate and Master"s degree at the University of Leicester, England, and at the University of Siegen located in Germany. For his second Master"s degree he followed an interdisciplinary study on the space sector at the International Space University in Strasbourg and at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow.
His most recent academic pursuits for the Department of Science, Technology and Policy Studies (STePS) promote actor alignment in the form of dynamic innovation chains that move new scientific breakthroughs from the laboratory to products, resulting in creating a final end application.
For research and innovation actors, such as start-up companies and scientists, he concludes. The anticipation of how technologies will develop and affect society is much more than prediction of which technologies are going to reach the market in the near future. "I have developed a specific system of tools to help speculate on how research lines will unfold." Soon, he articulates, "my study can offer clarity for scientists and start-ups to position and understand the diverse perspectives of other potential stakeholders in nanotechnology."
All in all, his research project is designed to explore new possibilities, while at the same time, craft the tools and potential approaches through a series of constructive TA exercises within the field of micro- and nanotechnologies. In November 2010, he earned his PhD when the final assessments of five projects were run and his results published.